www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Photo Gallery Ss. Peter & Paul Byzantine Catholic, Braddock, PA

So I found myself in Pittsburgh on some business on Easter Sunday into Monday. This past Monday, then, I hopped into the car with my trusty point-and-shoot and drove to this beautiful church.

I didn't expect to go inside, but a very kind lady driving by asked if I wanted to go in and I said "sure." It helps to be wearing clerics ! It turns out they were having Liturgy at 11a.m. I met, in passing, the priest and he too was very welcoming.

She explained why it never had an iconostasis: the people were constantly questioned if they were truly "Catholic".

Still, this interior is magnificent.

I'll let our forum historians Irish Melkite and John Schweich tell the back story!

Bless, Father Jon,

Beautiful. You messaged me to expect these (didn't reply because my PC has had several days of issues - now resolved), but I am beyond words*. As you say, though latinized, it is truly beautiful!

Many years,

Neil

*and very grateful, as always. You've come through again, as - until now - I had no photos of Ss Peter & Paul for use in its directory entry!

It is beautiful!

This church which was founded in 1896 has quite a history. It appears to have been modeled on the Cathedral in Užhorod (cf. St. Nicholas' in Youngstown.). I have a centennial history published in 1996 but believe there is much more. Can someone enlighten us?

SS. Peter and Paul was served for many years (from 1925 to 1959) by Rev. Julius Grigassy who published prayerbooks in English and Rusin. When the neighboring parish of St. Michael's in Rankin became Orthodox during the Celibacy struggle of the 1930s, Fr. Grigassy and his counterpart at St. Michael's, Fr. Stefan Varzaly, dueled from their respective pulpits over the issues of the day.

Quite a lovely church. I would remove the statues but otherwise would be content to leave it as it is.

Well, you can certainly tell a Byzantine Catholic Church when it was built prior to Vatican II when it has no iconostasis, and had to have statues instead. There are a few of which are also located here in the Cleveland area, especially St. Mary's on State Road, which still has the older-style architecture on the inside as well as outside.

Although I do believe that this being their patron feast days, and a Holy Day of Obligation, this would be one special parish to visit. I'll put this on my bucket list of parishes to visit eventually.

But, did they ever have an icon screen? Many were removed after all during periods of 'Americanization' following the 'borba'? For example, St. John Chrysostom in Ruska Dolina had its iconostas removed only to be restored post Vatican 2.

Fr. Peter Tomas on his Holy Spirit BCC Facebook page has some pictures of his beautiful Church, built very western in the early 1950's and easternized post Vatican 2 to the point where it is indistinguishable from a south Slavic Orthodox church in many ways. He recently posted pictures of his filial parish of SS. Peter and Paul in Endicott, NY, which was modeled on St. Michael's in Binghamton. It has a new iconostas and with the structural similarities to my home parish of St. Michael, it sort of tells me what St. Michael's might have looked like had the Greek Catholic congregants won the court case.

In any event, the Braddock church is beautiful. It reminds me of St. John's Orthodox Church in Nesquehoning, PA which had no icon screen until a few years ago. (St. Johns had no statues though....)

Those debates between Fathers Varzaly and Grigassy must have been something, the rhetoric they used probably turned away half of our people to either Roman Catholicism or nothingism.